Whitey Grandad

Does swallowing it make you pregnant? Someone who tried it thought it was a bit deer.

Nobody comes out of the sorry episode covered in glory, although a lot were covered in loot..

Of course. It was a right old mess. Now we all own some major banks and we've bought them with printed money. Now all we have to do is to decide what to do with them. Properly handled they should be gigantic money-making machines, but what are the chances of that?

You're being very selective over the figures. If you look at the graphs you can see that the trend was downwards to start with and is now rocketing. I don't think you'll find anyone who would say the Brown did not drastically increase the proportion of GDP that the government spends. Interest on debt is now around 3% of GDP and will rise to around 5% in the next few years. Whether it falls again is anybody's guess. Let's hope that what we spent all the money on was worth it.

Wait a couple of years and see them at St Mary's.

In the 7 years to 2007 spending increased dramatically as a proportion of gdp so it was not supported by economic growth. Brown threw money at the NHS on the hope that growth would continue regardless. There have always been economic cycles and Brown's mistake was to not be prepared for a downturn. Cameron's mistake was to continue with the same spending plans. On another point, the interest in our debt is now around £46bn and forecast to rise significantly over the next couple of years. This figure is greater than our defence budget.

I would argue that it shot up because of reckless government overspending. Brown committed money that we didn't have and were never likely to have.

No, you couldn't do it overnight but these services would be a lot cheaper if they weren't provided by the state.

Well, if I were you I wouldn't start from here... ...and we both know that neither Pakistan nor Hong Kong are remotely comparable with the UK.

It was going to be Commandment number 11 but there wasn't enough room and after the first ten the price went up to 10 shekels a word. I believe it's allowed providing it's your own crotch that you grab otherwise there can be arguments along the line of 'Oi I grabbed it first!'

What's wrong with Kiribati at over 100%?

Huh, in my day we had to put up with little hooks with letters around the edge of the pitch where they hung the half-time scores. You had to buy a programme to find out which games the letters referred to. And none of these match replays on MOTD when you got home, if you missed a goal then you'd never see it again.

Thanks. You read so many different stories that its difficult to know the true situation. It's the same with the US, I know many people who wouldn't go because if the fear of violence. It will be interesting to see what does happen when the Old Man finally does leave us. I suspect there will be some diet of power struggle for a while.

Here too. My wife desperately wants to go but is put off by the thought of the violence. Cape Town alone would do, should we be worried?

Quite right, there's no point being a witch if there are no perks.

Why didn't you choose Hong Kong?

Because 20% allows more freedom for the individual to choose how to spend their money. It all depends on who you believe will spend the money the more wisely.

I won't buy it, but there again I never bought any of the others...

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I've been to Bergen a few times. Has it stopped raining yet? Actually I was lucky, it was only raining on one of my visits, but I understand it's one of the wettest places around.

It took a long time and much discussion to gets what we have. Why on earth would you want to move?

The best chips are fried in beef dripping. Does anybody know of anywhere that still uses it?

I'll see yours and raise you:

Shouldn't this be in the Pompey thread?

The 'moan later' brigade have already started complaining about the universal state pension. You can understand a 'lack of provision and savings' when you see the paltry results from annuity and savings interest rates and the constant talk of means-testing those who have made prudent provision.